Elections

Republicans in several states are pushing bills to give poll watchers more autonomy. Alarmed election officials and voting rights activists say it’s a new attempt to target voters of color.HOUSTON — The red dot of a laser pointer circled downtown Houston on a map during a virtual training of poll watchers by the Harris County Republican Party. It highlighted densely populated, largely Black, Latino and Asian neighborhoods.“This is where the fraud is occurring,” a county Republican official said falsely in a leaked video of the training, which was held in March. A precinct chair in the northeastern, largely white suburbs of Houston, he said he was trying to recruit people from his area “to have the confidence and courage” to act as poll watchers in the circled areas in upcoming elections.A question at the bottom corner of the slide indicated just how many poll watchers the party wanted to mobilize: “Can we build a 10K Election Integrity Brigade?”As Republican lawmakers in major battleground states seek to make voting harder and more confusing through a web of new election laws, they are simultaneously making a concerted legislative push to grant more autonomy and access to partisan poll watchers — citizens trained by a campaign or a party and authorized by local election officials to observe the electoral process.This effort has alarmed election officials and voting rights activists alike: There is a long history of poll watchers being used to intimidate voters and harass election workers, often in ways that target Democratic-leaning communities of color and stoke fears that have the overall effect of voter suppression. During the 2020 election, President Donald J. Trump’s campaign repeatedly promoted its “army” of poll watchers as he publicly implored supporters to venture into heavily Black and Latino cities and hunt for voter fraud.Republicans have offered little evidence to justify a need for poll watchers to have expanded access and autonomy. As they have done for other election changes — including reduced early voting, stricter absentee ballot requirements and limits on drop boxes — they have grounded their reasoning in arguments that their voters want more secure elections. That desire was born in large part out of Mr. Trump’s repeated lies about last year’s presidential contest, which included complaints about insufficient poll watcher access.Now, with disputes over the rules governing voting now at a fever pitch, the rush to empower poll watchers threatens to inject further tension into elections.Both partisan and nonpartisan poll watching have been a key component of American elections for years, and Republicans and Democrats alike have routinely sent trained observers to the polls to monitor the process and report back on any worries. In recent decades, laws have often helped keep aggressive behavior at bay, preventing poll watchers from getting too close to voters or election officials, and maintaining a relatively low threshold for expelling anyone who misbehaves.But now Republican state lawmakers in 20 states have introduced at least 40 bills that would expand the powers of poll watchers, and 12 of those bills in six states are currently progressing through legislatures, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.In Texas, the Republican-controlled Legislature is advancing legislation that would allow them to photograph and video-record voters receiving assistance, as well as make it extremely difficult for election officials to order the removal of poll watchers.The video-recording measure has particularly alarmed voting rights groups, which argue that it could result in the unwanted identification of a voter in a video posted on social media, or allow isolated incidents to be used by partisan news outlets to craft a widespread narrative.“If you have a situation, for example, where people who are poll workers do not have the ability to throw out anybody at the polls who is being disruptive or anyone at the polls who is intimidating voters, that’s essentially authorizing voter intimidation,” said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the nonpartisan Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.Republicans have been increasingly open in recent years about their intent to line up legions of supporters to monitor the polls. Following the lead of Mr. Trump, they have often framed the observational role in militaristic tones, amplifying their arguments of its necessity with false claims of widespread fraud. Just three years ago, the courts lifted a consent decree that for more than three decades had barred the Republican National Committee from taking an active role in poll watching; in 2020, the committee jumped back into the practice.In Florida, Republicans in the State Legislature passed a new election bill on Thursday that includes a provision allowing one partisan poll watcher per candidate on the ballot during the inspection of votes. The measure carries the potential to significantly overcrowd election officials. The bill also does not stipulate any distance that poll watchers must keep from election workers.In Michigan, a G.O.P. bill would allow challengers to sit close enough to read poll books, tabulators and other election records, and would let them challenge a voter’s eligibility if they had “a good reason.”The Republican drive to empower poll watchers adds to the mounting evidence that much of the party continues to view the 2020 election through the same lens as Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly argued that his losses in key states must have been because of fraud.President Donald J. Trump on the morning after the election. His campaign promoted an “army” of poll watchers.Doug Mills/The New York Times“It seems like the No. 1 goal of these laws is to perpetuate the Big Lie,” said Dale Ho, the director of the Voting Rights Project at the A.C.L.U. “So when you get these unfounded charges that there was fraud or cheating in the election and people say, ‘Well, that’s not detected,’ the purveyors of these lies say, ‘That’s because we weren’t able to observe.’”After the election last year, complaints that poll watchers had not been given enough access, or that their accusations of improperly cast ballots had been ignored, fueled numerous lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and its Republican allies, nearly all of which failed.In Texas, the leaked video of the Harris County Republican Party’s training, which was published by the voting rights group Common Cause, recalled a similar episode from the 2010 midterm elections.That year, a Tea Party-affiliated group in Houston known as the King Street Patriots sent poll watchers to downtown polling locations. The flood of the mostly white observers into Black neighborhoods caused friction, and resurfaced not-too-distant memories when racial intimidation at the polls was commonplace in the South.The King Street Patriots would eventually evolve into True the Vote, one of the major national organizations now seeking more voting restrictions. Last year, True the Vote joined several lawsuits alleging fraud in the election (all failed) and led countrywide drives to try to recruit more poll watchers.Access for poll watchers is considered sacred by Texas Republicans; in the Legislature, they cited the difficulty in finding observers for drive-through voting and 24-hour voting as one of their reasons for proposing to ban such balloting methods.“Both parties want to have poll watchers, need to have poll watchers present,” State Senator Bryan Hughes, a Republican who sponsored the chamber’s version of the bill, said in an interview last month. “That protects everyone.”While the antagonistic language from the Trump campaign about its poll watchers was already a flash point in November, Democrats and voting rights groups are worried that relaxed rules will lead to more reports of aggressive behavior.In 2020, there were at least 44 reports of inappropriate behavior by poll watchers in Harris County, according to county records obtained by The New York Times. At one polling site on the outskirts of Houston, Cindy Wilson, the nonpartisan election official in charge, reported two aggressive poll watchers who she said had bothered voters and repeatedly challenged the staff.“Two Poll watchers stood close to the black voters (less than 3 feet away) and engaged in what I describe as intimidating behavior,” Ms. Wilson wrote in an email to the Harris County clerk that was obtained by The Times through an open records request.Ms. Wilson said she was not sure which campaign or party the observers were representing.Of course, plenty of interactions with poll workers went smoothly. Merrilee C. Peterson, a poll watcher for a local Republican candidate, worked at a different site, the NRG Arena, and reported no tensions of note.“We still had some of the problems of not thinking we were allowed to get close enough to see,” she said. “But once the little kinks were worked out, quite frankly we worked very well with the poll workers.”In Florida, crowding was the chief concern of election officials.Testifying before state senators, Mark Earley, the vice president of the Florida Supervisors of Elections, said that “as an association, we are very concerned” about the number of poll watchers who would now be allowed to observe the process of duplicating a voter’s damaged or erroneously marked ballot. He said it presented “very grave security risks.”Mr. Earley was backed by at least one Republican, State Senator Jeff Brandes, who found the provision for poll watchers unnecessary and dangerous.“I don’t think we should have to install risers in the supervisor of elections offices or bars by which they can hang upside down in order to ensure that there is a transparent process,” Mr. Brandes said.A crowd that included many Michigan Republicans banged on the windows as workers counted absentee ballots in Detroit on Nov. 4. Brittany Greeson for The New York TimesBut perhaps no other state had a conflict involving poll watchers erupt onto cable news as Michigan did. On Election Day and the day after in November, Republican poll watchers grew increasingly obstructive at the TCF Center in Detroit, where absentee ballots were counted as it became clear that Mr. Trump was losing in the state.It began with a huddle of Republican observers around midday on Nov. 4, according to affidavits from Democratic poll watchers, nonpartisan observers and election officials.Soon after, the Republicans “began to fan out around the room,” wrote Dan McKernan, an election worker.Then they ramped up their objections, accusing workers of entering incorrect birth years or backdating ballots. In some cases, the poll watchers lodged blanket claims of wrongdoing.“The behavior in the room changed dramatically in the afternoon: The rage in the room from Republican challengers was nothing like I had ever experienced in my life,” wrote Anjanette Davenport Hatter, another election worker.Mr. McKernan wrote: “Republicans were challenging everything at the two tables I could see. When the ballot envelope was opened, they would say they couldn’t see it clearly. When the next envelope was opened, they made the same complaint. They were objecting to every single step down the line for no good reason.”The chaos provided some of the basis for Michigan officials to debate whether to certify the results, but a state board did so that month.Now, the Republican-controlled Legislature in Michigan is proposing to bar nonpartisan observers from acting as poll watchers, allowing only partisan challengers to do so.While widespread reports of intimidation never materialized last year, voting rights groups say the atmosphere after the election represents a dangerous shift in American elections.“It really hasn’t been like this for decades, generally speaking, even though there’s a long and storied history of it,” said Michael Waldman, a legal expert at the Brennan Center. Aggressive partisan poll watchers, he said, were “a longstanding barrier to voting in the United States, and it was also largely solved. And this risks bringing it back.” More

The Democratic candidates are making radically different bets about the mood and priorities of New Yorkers as the city moves toward reopening after the pandemic.The signs of New York City’s recovery are everywhere: Vaccinations are on the rise; restaurant and bar curfews are ending; occupancy restrictions are easing in offices, ballparks and gyms. By July 1, Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city should be “fully reopened.”After more than a year of death and economic devastation, New York is lurching into a new and uncertain phase of recovery — and the candidates vying to be the city’s next mayor are making radically different bets about the mood and priorities of New Yorkers, and how best to coax the city back to life.As the mayoral candidates barrel toward the June 22 Democratic primary, sharp distinctions are emerging around how to address this immense task.Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate and current front-runner, has positioned himself as the city’s ultimate cheerleader in the race, and he has made accelerating the reopening of the city a central plank of his messaging. Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, describes a series of crises facing New York and promises to be a progressive mayor who will “manage the hell out of the city.”Maya Wiley, a civil rights lawyer who is particularly focused on matters of racial justice, often urges a “reimagining” of a more equitable city following the pandemic. And Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, suggests that public safety is a prerequisite for progress and speaks often of his experience as a Black former police captain who pushed for change within the system.“I don’t want to hear people say, ‘We want to have New York City be just happy again,’” Mr. Adams said at a recent campaign appearance in Queens, even as he promised brighter days ahead. “To too many New Yorkers, the city was never happy.”The matter of how the city recovers plainly resonates with New Yorkers: A recent Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos poll found that 34 percent of likely Democratic primary voters surveyed viewed reopening businesses and the economy as the top priority for the next mayor, second only to stopping the spread of Covid-19 and closely followed by crime and public safety.Eric Adams has emerged as the candidate most focused on public safety.Shannon Stapleton/ReutersThe challenge for all the candidates is to offer the right mix of experience and empathy, energy and vision, to engage a diverse electorate that experienced the coronavirus crisis and its fallout in very different ways.More than any other candidate, Mr. Yang expects that New Yorkers, after a desperately challenging year, want a hopeful mayor with a simple message about reopening the city quickly.Part of Mr. Yang’s lead in the sparse public polling available can be attributed to name recognition from his presidential campaign, but a number of veteran Democratic strategists say he has also settled on a tone that resonates with many voters eager to move on from the pandemic.“It’s the spring of 2021, not the spring of 2020, and New Yorkers are increasingly optimistic and hopeful about the future,” said Howard Wolfson, a longtime adviser to former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is neutral in the race. “So far, Andrew Yang is the person who has best captured that sentiment.”He and his competitors agree that New York must be reopened as a more vibrant and equitable place than it was when it closed, and they are putting forth a wide range of policy prescriptions and arguments around leadership skills to illustrate how they would do just that.Mr. Yang, who says he wants to be the anti-poverty mayor, has unveiled a range of policy proposals around vital city issues, many of which begin with a simple prescription: accelerate the opening of the city and cheer on New York’s promise. On Tuesday, for instance, he urged the state to loosen restrictions on bars and restaurants, saying that reopening those establishments was “mission critical.” He has also proposed a basic income program for the poorest New Yorkers, a less expansive version of the universal basic income he promoted as a presidential candidate.But a big part of his strategy also involves attending reopening events — like Opening Day at Yankee Stadium — and declaring that New York must be open for business. He has promised to host “the biggest post-Covid celebration in the world.”The test for Mr. Yang will be whether voters believe he has sufficient managerial experience and knowledge of the city to execute the complicated rebuilding efforts that he likes to applaud. And his efforts to cheer on city businesses do not always land: He recently had a disastrous appearance before a prominent L.G.B.T.Q. Democratic organization, where participants felt that he was more focused on discussing gay bars than matters of policy.“We need somebody who’s going to steer the ship, but not overpromise — don’t tell me we’re going to be Disneyland next week,” said Donovan Richards, the Queens borough president. He was speaking broadly about the field, but when asked which candidates were striking the right balance in tone, he pointed to Mr. Adams and Ms. Wiley. He intends to make an endorsement in the coming days.Maya Wiley, right, is particularly focused on issues of social justice.Michelle V. Agins/The New York TimesSeveral of Mr. Yang’s rivals have argued that he is ill-equipped to lead the city at a moment of staggering challenges. Many are working to draw sharper contrasts with him, an effort that may culminate in the first debate, on May 13.A number of candidates believe that the electorate — while convinced of New York’s strengths and hopeful about its future — also wants an experienced government veteran who exudes knowledge of the political system in discussing how to navigate recovery.Shaun Donovan, the former Obama administration housing secretary, is seeking to brand himself “the man with the plan,” issuing a 200-page proposal with ideas ranging from launching a skills-based training program to facilitate employment opportunities, to creating “15-minute neighborhoods” in an effort to make good schools, transit and parks more accessible. He often notes his time working with President Barack Obama and President Biden to illustrate his ability to manage high-stakes moments for the country..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}Kathryn Garcia, the former sanitation commissioner, is especially focused on promoting small businesses and combating climate change. She has pushed for a single city permit for small businesses in an effort to ease bureaucratic hurdles. Ms. Garcia is a veteran of city government who exudes affection for her hometown but is blunt in her assessment of the depths of New York’s challenges.She and other longtime officials, like Mr. Stringer and Mr. Adams, argue that deep familiarity with navigating city government is vital to managing the city’s reopening.Mr. Stringer often says that the city is facing interlocking crises around the economy, social justice and health disparities. His long list of ambitions, with accompanying lengthy plans, includes a promise for “universal affordable housing.” Mr. Stringer’s ability to make his case has been complicated in recent days by an allegation of sexual assault, which he denies.Other contenders with less campaign experience argue that they bring a fresh perspective to combating the city’s biggest challenges.Ms. Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, describes herself as an unconventional candidate with a background in advocacy around racial and economic justice. She has been highlighting “50 Ideas for NYC,” which includes a proposal to invest in caregiving, in part by paying more informal care workers, and she has proposed a $10 billion capital spending program aimed at creating jobs and improving infrastructure in communities across the city.Dianne Morales, a left-wing former nonprofit executive, is calling for a total overhaul of the city’s “system,” noting the inequality that the pandemic deepened. She supports ideas like “basic income relief for every household,” and sees matters of racial justice and public safety as core to how the city reopens and recovers. She urges far-reaching proposals like $3 billion in cuts to the New York Police Department’s budget, to be reinvested in community responses.Dianne Morales wants to cut the police budget by $3 billion.Jeenah Moon/ReutersAssessing how to discuss reopening is difficult, said Gale Brewer, the Manhattan borough president, because people have vastly different priorities depending on their circumstances.“How do you get New York City back working again and including everybody? That’s the problem,” she said. “The city’s pretty divided.”In January, Mr. Adams — who has cast himself as a candidate with a blue-collar background who is focused on combating inequality — rolled out more than 100 ideas for the city’s future. But in recent weeks he has also emerged as the candidate most clearly focused on combating gun violence. “Public safety,” he often says, is the “prerequisite to prosperity.”Raymond J. McGuire, a former Citigroup executive with a hardscrabble childhood, sometimes declares, “no jobs, no city,” as he pitches himself as the best steward of the city’s economic recovery, with a plan that he claims will bring back 500,000 jobs. And in one sign of his sense of the electorate’s mood, Mr. McGuire has released an ad that concludes, “Ray McGuire: the serious choice for mayor.”Even by 2022, the city’s future will be uncertain: Tourists may not fully return until 2025, a dynamic with significant implications for New York’s standing as a global cultural capital; many companies will adopt hybrid work strategies, blending work from home with traditional office time and threatening to permanently reshape Manhattan; and many small businesses that closed during the pandemic may never reopen.In a city shaped by deep racial and socioeconomic inequality, candidates seeking to build a broad coalition need a message and tone that connects with both white-collar workers who are overjoyed about leaving their apartments and with New Yorkers worried about evictions and unemployment.“For a large amount of people suffering in this pandemic,” said Mr. Richards, the Queens borough president, “their question is going to be, ‘Reopen the city for whom?’” More

The front-runner in Saturday’s election is Susan Wright, who has been endorsed by Donald J. Trump and is the widow of Representative Ron Wright, who died of Covid-19 in February.AUSTIN, Texas — Not long ago, Texas’ Sixth Congressional District seemed to be securely in Republican hands. Ron Wright, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, was poised to advance the G.O.P.’s agenda after he was elected in 2018.But this year Mr. Wright, who had lung cancer, contracted the coronavirus and became the first member of Congress to die from Covid-19. His unexpected death led his wife, Susan Wright, to run for his seat, and she was expected to take her husband’s place in Washington with little pushback.Instead, a field of 23 candidates crowded into Saturday’s special election, all competing for a spot in a likely runoff if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote.Mrs. Wright, long considered the front-runner, is seeking to capitalize on a recent endorsement from former President Donald J. Trump to establish herself as the undisputed favorite among 11 Republicans, some of whom were also hoping to be anointed by the former president.Ten Democrats led by Jana Lynne Sanchez, who ran against Mr. Wright in 2018, are tapping into a reservoir of Hispanic and African-American growth that has stirred hopes among party leaders in a district that Mr. Trump won by only three percentage points in the 2020 election.The Sixth District had been a Democratic stronghold until 1983, when the Democratic incumbent, Phil Gramm, changed party affiliations, turning the district into a reliable bastion of Republican strength for nearly four decades.The race also includes a libertarian and an independent.“It’s pretty crazy,” said Cathy Stein, an independent voter in the Arlington area, referring to the long list of options. “I definitely have a short list now. But I won’t know until I have the ballot in front of me. I’m not a fan of having too many candidates running for the same seat.”Ms. Stein will most likely remain undecided until she shows up to her polling site on Saturday. She said she was looking for a candidate willing to work with others in Washington.The district cuts across three North Texas counties and sprawls along the lower edge of the nation’s fourth-largest metropolitan region, anchored by Dallas, Fort Worth and Arlington.The ultimate outcome of the race could shed new light on Mr. Trump’s continued political hold in Texas, the growth of Hispanic and African-American political power and the impact of the savage pandemic.In endorsing Mrs. Wright, Mr. Trump said in a statement that Mr. Wright voted along party lines during his short tenure in Congress — 96 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. Before his death on Feb. 7, he was among 139 Republican members of the House to vote against certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.Former Representative Ron Wright, right, in 2019. His wife, Susan Wright, center, is considered the front-runner for his vacant seat.Susan Walsh/Associated PressBut the election on Saturday could help indicate whether Mr. Trump’s hold on the party took any kind of hit after a mob of his supporters ransacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.“We shouldn’t be afraid of Donald Trump. His endorsement can sometimes backfire,” said Nathalie Rayes, president of Latino Victory, an advocacy group that seeks to strengthen the political power of Latinos.Latinos, who tend to lean Democratic, make up nearly 20 percent of the population in the district, which has made this crowded race more competitive for left-leaning candidates, Ms. Rayes said. Her organization is backing Ms. Sanchez, who lost to Mr. Wright by eight percentage points in the race for the seat in 2018.If elected, Ms. Sanchez would be the first Latina to represent the district.Whoever ultimately wins will join the second-largest congressional delegation in the country, one that will be expanded by two seats next year because of new census data. The delegation now has 36 members — 22 Republicans and 13 Democrats, along with the vacancy in the Sixth District.Whether someone other than Mrs. Wright and Ms. Sanchez can get into the two-person runoff remains unclear, but the likeliest candidate seems to be State Representative Jake Ellzey of Midlothian, a Republican.Mr. Ellzey, a former Navy fighter pilot and a commercial airline pilot who ran against Mr. Wright in the 2018 Republican primary, also brandishes his own high-profile endorsement. He has been supported by Rick Perry, Texas’ longest-serving governor and energy secretary during part of the Trump administration.Although Mr. Perry’s support of Mr. Ellzey puts him at political odds with his former boss in Washington, the former governor is a longtime friend of the congressional candidate.Another Republican contender, Brian Harrison, is a former chief of staff at the Department of Health and Human Services who touts his service in the Trump administration. A website photo shows him standing next to Mr. Trump in the Oval Office.While the Republican candidates offer differing styles and backgrounds, they appear to be fundamentally in agreement in calling for a strong border enforcement, low taxes, gun rights and other G.O.P. priorities. “There are differences in life experiences, but not on the issues,” Craig Murphy, Mr. Ellzey’s campaign spokesman, said.One outlier is Michael Wood, a business owner who has gained attention as an anti-Trump Republican. He has said that the former president bears much of the responsibility for the Capitol riot and that many traditional Republicans are looking for an alternative to Trumpism.The challenge for other Democrats in the race is to topple Ms. Sanchez’s status as the Democratic front-runner and land a spot in the runoff. Leading contenders include Lydia Bean, a teacher and business owner, and Shawn Lassiter, an educator.“It’s anybody’s race at this point,” Ms. Rayes said.Dave Montgomery More

The secretary of state will first meet with British officials and other American allies in London.WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken will travel to Kyiv next week, a clear signal of the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine’s government against threats from Russia.In a statement announcing the trip, the State Department said Mr. Blinken would “reaffirm unwavering U.S. support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity in the face of Russia’s ongoing aggression.”Mr. Blinken will meet in Kyiv on Wednesday and Thursday with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, senior officials and civil society representatives. His visit will be preceded by a three-day stop in London.Mr. Blinken will be the most senior American official to visit Kyiv since Secretary of State Mike Pompeo traveled there in February 2020, soon after Congress impeached and acquitted President Donald J. Trump on charges that he abused his power by leveraging U.S. policy toward the country in an effort to incriminate Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a Democratic candidate for president, and his son, Hunter.As president, Mr. Biden has offered strong support for Ukraine against Moscow, which annexed Crimea in 2014 — an act the United States has never recognized — and fomented a Russian-backed separatist rebellion in the country’s east that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.But Russia has tested that support, intensifying its military intimidation of Ukraine this spring with a huge troop buildup along the countries’ shared border, which many analysts said could be a precursor to an invasion. Russia announced plans to withdraw many of those forces this month. But earlier this week, John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, told reporters that it was “too soon to tell and to take at face value” Russia’s claim.Mr. Blinken will begin his trip with his first visit as secretary to London, the site of a Group of 7 foreign and development ministers’ meeting that will lay the groundwork for a gathering of the leaders of the Group of 7 countries in Cornwall in June.The State Department framed Mr. Blinken’s visit as part of a global defense of democracy that Mr. Biden, in an address to Congress and the nation on Wednesday night, called vital to countering the rise of authoritarian China. The State Department spokesman, Ned Price, said Mr. Blinken would be “discussing the democratic values that we share with our partners and allies within the G7.”The meeting of Group of 7 ministers, planned for Tuesday, will open with a session specifically devoted to China, Erica Barks-Ruggles, the senior official in the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs, said in a news briefing.Mr. Price added that the foreign ministers would also address the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, as well as issues including human rights, food security and gender equality.Joining the ministers from the Group of 7 countries — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada — in London will be representatives from Australia, India, South Africa, South Korea and Brunei.Their attendance reflects a growing interest on the part of western nations to collaborate more closely with fellow democracies around the world as part of the broader competition with China and other countries exporting authoritarian values, including Russia.Officials from those nations will join ones from the Group of 7 for a discussion on Wednesday about open societies, including media freedom and combating disinformation, Ms. Barks-Ruggles added. Samantha Power, the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, will join sessions on how to ensure a sustainable recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.During his stay in London from Monday to Wednesday, Mr. Blinken will meet with Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and his foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, and take part in a wreath-laying ceremony at St. Paul’s Cathedral honoring soldiers killed in World War II.Even as Biden administration officials have stressed their support for Ukraine’s government, they have also pressured Kyiv to complete reforms within the country’s notoriously corrupt political system. The State Department said that would be a priority for Mr. Blinken, and that progress in that area “is key to securing Ukraine’s democratic institutions, economic prosperity and Euro-Atlantic future.”Briefing reporters on Thursday, Mr. Price said that the United States was “deeply concerned” by a recent move by Ukrainian cabinet ministers to replace the management of the country’s leading energy company, Naftogaz. Mr. Price called the actions “just the latest example of ignoring best practices and putting Ukraine’s hard-fought economic progress at risk.”The trip will be Mr. Blinken’s third overseas since taking office as in-person diplomacy slowly resumes even as the coronavirus ravages much of the world. This month, he visited Brussels and Kabul, and in March he traveled to Asia and then met with Chinese officials in Alaska. More

The Working Families Party, a major left-leaning institution, and several lawmakers withdrew their backing of Scott Stringer for mayor of New York City.Several of New York’s leading left-wing lawmakers and the New York chapter of the Working Families Party pulled their support for Scott M. Stringer’s mayoral campaign on Friday following an allegation of sexual misconduct.The withdrawal of the endorsements dealt seismic blows to Mr. Stringer, and significantly complicated his path forward in the mayor’s race in New York City.Representative Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat; State Senators Alessandra Biaggi, Julia Salazar and Gustavo Rivera and Assemblywomen Yuh-Line Niou and Catalina Cruz — many of whom had been at Mr. Stringer’s campaign announcement and had served as prominent surrogates for his mayoral bid — issued a joint statement.“We are rescinding our endorsement of Scott Stringer’s mayoral campaign,” it said simply.Mr. Stringer, the city comptroller, has sought to be the left-wing standard-bearer in the high-stakes mayoral contest, and he had gained momentum in recent weeks, in part because of the backing of the Working Families Party, which his allies had seen as a turning point in the race. But the sexual misconduct accusation from a former campaign worker, which came to light this week, has sparked an outcry, placing mounting political pressure on the candidate, who has vigorously denied wrongdoing.The woman, Jean Kim, now a political lobbyist, accused Mr. Stringer of sexually assaulting her when she worked on his 2001 race for public advocate. She said that Mr. Stringer, who was then a state assemblyman, had groped her, made other unwanted sexual overtures and told her to keep those actions quiet. Mr. Stringer has strenuously denied those claims, saying that they had a consensual relationship that stretched over a few months.But he has faced increasing pressure this week, losing the endorsement of several prominent lawmakers who had supported his campaign within a day of Ms. Kim’s public statement. Jimmy Van Bramer, a Queens councilman who less than a week ago was giving impassioned remarks at a rally for Mr. Stringer, wrote on Twitter on Friday that he no longer backed his candidacy. The fresh defections from the lawmakers may land as especially personal rebukes for Mr. Stringer, who had cultivated relationships with a number of those Democrats for years, serving as a mentor to several of them and endorsing them early in competitive campaigns. In turn, he relied on their endorsements to make the case that he, a career politician with deep ties to New York political institutions, could also be the candidate of the activist left. Their departures unquestionably weaken Mr. Stringer’s candidacy, and some on the left fear that Mr. Stringer’s stumbles will help Andrew Yang, the former presidential candidate, and Eric Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, two more centrist contenders in the race. Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, has been competing for some of the same deeply progressive voters Mr. Stringer has sought, and some political observers see an opening for her as well.A person familiar with the Working Families Party’s decision said its members felt Mr. Stringer was dismissive toward Ms. Kim and her account.“We approached this moment with the deliberate reflection, discussion, and input from members and leaders across the party that it required,” Sochie Nnaemeka, the party’s state director, said in a statement. “Jean Kim shared her experience of sexual assault and Scott Stringer failed to acknowledge and consider his responsibility for that harm.”Mr. Stringer, who has stressed a zero-tolerance policy for sexual harassment and has said he believes women deserve to be heard and treated respectfully, issued a pre-emptive statement earlier Friday afternoon.“I understand that this is a difficult moment for my supporters, and I know that some of them will feel compelled to withdraw their endorsement of my candidacy,” he said. “This campaign was always going to be about the people. I’ve received a lot of support on campaign stops over the last two days, and I’m going to be campaigning in every neighborhood, in every borough for the next two months.”Certainly, Mr. Stringer remains well funded, and so far still maintains support from major unions including the United Federation of Teachers, as well as from officials like Representative Jerrold Nadler..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}The Working Families Party had endorsed Dianne Morales, a former nonprofit executive and perhaps the most left-wing candidate in the race, as its second choice, and Ms. Wiley as its third choice ahead of the city’s ranked-choice mayoral election on June 22.“We are enthusiastically reiterating support for our other endorsed candidates, Dianne Morales and Maya Wiley,” the statement said. “The New York Working Families Party will be forging forward in the critical weeks ahead to ensure one of these fearless, bold women is the next Mayor of New York.”Party leaders had a series of tense calls over whether to rescind Mr. Stringer’s endorsement, and ultimately the decision to do so came down to three factors, according to a member of the organization who was not authorized to discuss the deliberations. There was a sense that Mr. Stringer was too defensive in his response to the allegations, and did not acknowledge the power imbalance he had with Ms. Kim; members felt he could no longer win the mayor’s race; and there was a fear that if they did not rescind Mr. Stringer’s endorsement, women would no longer feel supported within the organization.Whether Ms. Morales would now be treated as the first choice of the organization was not clear Friday afternoon.Sunrise NYC, the New York chapter of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-driven organization focused on climate, also rescinded its endorsement of Mr. Stringer; it had previously co-endorsed Mr. Stringer and Ms. Morales.“As of today,” the organization wrote on Twitter, “our sole endorsement for NYC Mayor is @Dianne4NYC.” More

Republican lawmakers are marching ahead to overhaul voting systems in states where they control the government, frustrating Democrats and even some G.O.P. election officials. Next up: Texas.The pleas from Florida election officials were direct and dire: Passing the state’s new voting bill would be a “grave security risk,” “unnecessary” and a “travesty.”The restrictions imposed by the new law, they warned, would make it harder to vote and hurt confidence in the balloting process.But their objections were brushed aside on Thursday night as the Legislature gave final passage to a bill that would limit voting by mail, curtail the use of drop boxes and prohibit actions to help people waiting in line to vote, among other restrictions, while imposing penalties on those who do not follow the rules. It was perhaps the clearest sign yet that Republicans are determined to march forward across state capitols to establish new restrictions on voting.The Republican effort puts added pressure on Democrats in Congress to find a way to pass federal voting laws, including a sweeping overhaul known as the For the People Act. But in Washington, just as in state capitols across the country, Republicans have remained united and steadfast against the Democratic efforts.Georgia Republicans in March enacted far-reaching new voting laws that limit ballot drop-boxes and forbid the distribution of food and water to voters waiting in line. Iowa has also imposed new limits, including reducing the period for early voting and in-person voting hours on Election Day.Next up is Texas, where Republicans in the legislature are trampling protestations from corporate titans like Dell Technologies and American Airlines and moving on a vast election bill that would be among the most severe in the nation. It would impose new restrictions on early voting, ban drive-through voting, threaten election officials with harsher penalties and greatly empower partisan poll watchers. The main bill passed a key committee in a late-night session on Thursday, and could head to a full floor vote in the House as early as next week.Bills to restrict voting have also been moving through Republican-led legislatures in Arizona and Michigan.Throughout the process, Republican legislators have been largely unmoved by opposition to new voting laws by Fortune 500 companies, major American sports leagues, Black faith leaders and elections administrators. Nor has the lack of popular support for many of the bills deterred them. Even as some of the more strident initial proposals have been watered down, there has rarely been a pause, even for a moment, in the drive to pass new legislation on voting.“I don’t think anybody was concerned about it,” Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator and the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said of outside criticism.Tightening his state’s election laws, Mr. Gruters has said, is a top priority not just of Republican lawmakers but also of the party’s base. Though he characterized Florida’s election system as a national “gold standard” and said he wasn’t aware of any fraud in the 2020 election, Mr. Gruters said in a phone interview on Friday that his state’s voting could always be improved.“It’s just like when the Tampa Bay Bucs won the Super Bowl — they’re still making improvements and signing new players,” he said.Joe Gruters, a Florida state senator and the chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, said tightening voting laws was a top priority for lawmakers and the party’s base.Wilfredo Lee/Associated PressA representative for Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Friday that he “is supportive” of the Florida bill, and he is widely expected to sign it. But state election officials were still protesting the measure on Friday morning, barely 12 hours after it had passed.The group representing Florida election supervisors issued a statement lamenting the new limits on voting by mail, saying the changes would make it “harder” to cast a mail ballot. “After days of debate, our hope is that the initial and unnecessary call for election reform will not detract from the confidence that was well-earned in 2020,” Craig Latimer, the head of the group, said in the statement.The unrelenting push by Republicans to roll back voting access has left Democrats exasperated. In an emotional floor speech before the final vote in Florida on Thursday night, State Representative Angela Nixon of Tampa both pleaded with her colleagues to vote against the bill and chastised those supporting it.“It’s very frustrating, and it’s super hard to be in this chamber, and to be cool with people and cordial with people who are making policies that are detrimental to our communities,” said Ms. Nixon, her voice shaking at times.The fixation on voting laws reflects how central the issue has become to the Republican Party, driven by a base that still adheres to former President Donald J. Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Pledges to ensure voting integrity have become common in political ads and stump speeches, and opposition to the federal voting rights bills in Congress is universal among Republican members.A number of Republicans running for office in 2022 have begun campaigns with messaging that pushes the false narrative that the nation’s voting systems are flawed. They include Representative Ted Budd of North Carolina, who on Wednesday announced a Senate bid with a three-minute video in which he called for fair and secure elections, adopting Republicans’ rationale for revamping the voting laws.In a political era in which partisan primaries are often the only challenge a candidate faces, the party’s base has become a chief driver of legislative action. A CNN poll released on Friday found that while 97 percent of Democrats believed President Biden “legitimately won enough votes to win the presidency,” 70 percent of Republicans surveyed said he did not.And polling from Quinnipiac University in April found that a vast majority of Republicans — 78 percent — were opposed to expanding vote by mail, and 84 percent believed that voter fraud was a greater threat than voter suppression. (Numerous audits, court cases and reports have found no significant fraud in the 2020 election.)Republicans have been largely dismissive of the business community’s objections to new voting restrictions, part of a longer-running split between the parties and local chambers of commerce that began when corporations vocally opposed laws enacted by Republican-run states in the 2010s that sought to protect businesses from having to recognize same-sex marriage.An array of corporations also denounced the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and said they would not donate to Republican members of Congress who voted to overturn the election results. That threat didn’t sway most lawmakers from their fealty to Mr. Trump, and in the weeks since the attack, some companies have pulled back from that pledge.Indeed, some Republicans have turned public opposition from major businesses and outside entities into a political weapon; rather than seek to appease businesses, lawmakers have instead taunted them, castigating corporate activism and daring businesses to act.“Major League Baseball caved to fear and lies from liberal activists,” Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia announced the day after the decision by Major League Baseball to move its All-Star Game from Atlanta. Free and fair elections, he said, “are worth the threats.” He added, “They are worth the boycotts, as well as the lawsuits. I want to be clear: I will not be backing down from this fight.’’Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia said he would continue to defend the state’s new voting restrictions after Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta this year.Brynn Anderson/Associated PressLt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas was just as firm. “Texans are fed up with corporations that don’t share our values trying to dictate public policy,” he said after American Airlines released a statement denouncing one of the voting bills in the state. “The majority of Texans support maintaining the integrity of our elections, which is why I made it a priority this legislative session.”Republicans not in thrall to Mr. Trump see the standoff with businesses as an ominous sign. “We say the party has gone full Trump, but what we mean is the party has gone full populist and nationalist,” said Michael Wood, an anti-Trump Republican running in Saturday’s 23-candidate special election to Congress in the Dallas suburbs. “We’ve turned away from our roots as a pro-business party, a pro-small business party, and that, if we don’t correct course, is going to be really bad for America.”Yet Republicans are also seizing on a potential political opportunity. The aftermath of the 2020 election, and Mr. Trump’s insistence that the vote was rigged, provided the party with the first major public support from its partisans to pursue new voting legislation, after the Supreme Court hollowed out the Voting Rights Act in 2013.Indeed, many of the laws being proposed and passed by Republicans would most likely have been challenged by the Justice Department under what was known as the preclearance provision in Section 5 of the act.“We saw something like this in 2010 after Obama got elected,” said Myrna Pérez, the director of the Voting Rights and Elections Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “But we had more of a pushback and were able to block or blunt many of those laws. Now there’s not the kind of guardrails that we had in the past, and voters are suffering because of it.”Michael Wood, left, a Republican congressional candidate in Texas, criticized his party for going “full populist and nationalist.”LM Otero/Associated PressMr. Wood, the Texas Republican running in Saturday’s special election, worries that this could drive away supporters.“It’s keeping Republicans from talking honestly to themselves about why we’re getting a smaller and smaller share of the vote in Texas,” he said. “We can either have that conversation, or keep screaming about quote unquote ‘election integrity’ and watch the state become progressively more Democratic.”That debate could well be decided soon when the Texas Legislature takes up its own voting bill.Patricia Mazzei contributed reporting. More

Andrew Yang is leading. Scott Stringer is under a cloud. Their rivals are jostling for a boost of momentum.With less than two months to go until the all-important Democratic primary, the New York City mayor’s race is one of the costliest and most closely watched political campaigns in the country this year. It’s also one of the most uncertain.The businessman Andrew Yang is widely seen as the front-runner, mostly thanks to the celebrity profile that he accrued on the presidential campaign trail last year, when he mounted a quixotic run.But with a ranked-choice voting system in place for the first time, and most voters still relatively unengaged and unaware of the candidates involved, no one has emerged with a clear path to victory.“Yang is the front-runner, but a vulnerable front-runner,” Doug Schoen, a political strategist and longtime adviser to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said in an interview. “It isn’t clear to me now who will be his rival — but a rival can and may well emerge.”On Wednesday, a major wrench flew into the campaign when Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller and the leading progressive in the race, was accused of sexual assault. Jean Kim, now a political lobbyist, said that when she was an intern for his campaign for public advocate in 2001, he kissed and groped her and pressured her to have sex with him. (Mr. Stringer denied the allegations, saying that he and Ms. Kim had had a brief, consensual relationship.)The blowback has been immediate and severe. The three female Democratic mayoral candidates — including Mr. Stringer’s top progressive rival, Maya Wiley, a former aide to Mayor Bill de Blasio — called on Mr. Stringer to exit the race. He canceled a birthday fund-raiser that had been planned for yesterday.Recent surveys have found that Mr. Stringer, Mr. Yang and Eric Adams, the relatively moderate Brooklyn borough president, are the only three candidates with name recognition from a majority of likely voters. But those polls also found that half of voters hadn’t yet picked a candidate, reflecting how wide open the race remains.Under the ranked-choice system, voters will select up to five candidates in order of preference. This could elevate a candidate who isn’t everyone’s first choice — but it could also hurt a candidate who is plenty of people’s first choice, but not as many people’s second or third choice.“It adds chaos,” Ken Sherrill, a political scientist and chair of the Higher Education PAC, said of the new system.“If we don’t watch out, we’re going to get a mayor almost chosen by random chance,” he continued, adding the caveat that over the next two months, awareness of the race may increase significantly.“The information flow about the campaign has been a trickle, because other issues have crowded things out,” he said. “As information flow increases, interest will go up and information will go up.”Ms. Wiley, who arguably stands to benefit the most from Mr. Stringer’s embattlement, faces an uphill climb. Just 36 percent of likely voters said they were familiar with who she was, according to a Spectrum News NY1/Ipsos NYC poll conducted this month.For Dianne Morales, an anti-poverty organizer and nonprofit executive who is also angling for the left lane in the primary, the barriers to name recognition are even higher: She was known by only 25 percent of likely voters, according to the NY1 poll.Asked in that poll what their major political concerns were for the next mayor to address, voters were most likely to say stopping the spread of Covid-19, reopening businesses and confronting crime. Upward of one in three likely voters named each of those. Addressing affordable housing, racial injustice and homelessness were cited less often..css-1xzcza9{list-style-type:disc;padding-inline-start:1em;}.css-3btd0c{font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-size:1rem;line-height:1.375rem;color:#333;margin-bottom:0.78125rem;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-3btd0c{font-size:1.0625rem;line-height:1.5rem;margin-bottom:0.9375rem;}}.css-3btd0c strong{font-weight:600;}.css-3btd0c em{font-style:italic;}.css-w739ur{margin:0 auto 5px;font-family:nyt-franklin,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.3125rem;color:#121212;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-family:nyt-cheltenham,georgia,’times new roman’,times,serif;font-weight:700;font-size:1.375rem;line-height:1.625rem;}@media (min-width:740px){#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-w739ur{font-size:1.6875rem;line-height:1.875rem;}}@media (min-width:740px){.css-w739ur{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.4375rem;}}.css-1dg6kl4{margin-top:5px;margin-bottom:15px;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}#masthead-bar-one{display:none;}.css-12vbvwq{background-color:white;border:1px solid #e2e2e2;width:calc(100% – 40px);max-width:600px;margin:1.5rem auto 1.9rem;padding:15px;box-sizing:border-box;}@media (min-width:740px){.css-12vbvwq{padding:20px;width:100%;}}.css-12vbvwq:focus{outline:1px solid #e2e2e2;}#NYT_BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT_REGION .css-12vbvwq{border:none;padding:10px 0 0;border-top:2px solid #121212;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-rdoyk0{-webkit-transform:rotate(0deg);-ms-transform:rotate(0deg);transform:rotate(0deg);}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-eb027h{max-height:300px;overflow:hidden;-webkit-transition:none;transition:none;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-5gimkt:after{content:’See more’;}.css-12vbvwq[data-truncated] .css-6mllg9{opacity:1;}.css-1rh1sk1{margin:0 auto;overflow:hidden;}.css-1rh1sk1 strong{font-weight:700;}.css-1rh1sk1 em{font-style:italic;}.css-1rh1sk1 a{color:#326891;-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-underline-offset:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-thickness:1px;text-decoration-thickness:1px;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;text-decoration-color:#ccd9e3;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:visited{color:#333;-webkit-text-decoration-color:#ccc;text-decoration-color:#ccc;}.css-1rh1sk1 a:hover{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}If Mr. Stringer’s star fades, it could provide an opening not only for other progressive candidates but also for some of Mr. Yang’s well-funded moderate rivals, like Mr. Adams and Shaun Donovan, a former New York housing commissioner and member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet.But as our Metro reporter Michael Wilson wrote in an article this week, the prevailing feeling for many voters right now is a lack of interest — maybe induced by exhaustion. There has been plenty of negative news coming from Albany since Gov. Andrew Cuomo was repeatedly accused of sexual misconduct in recent months. And there will be little love lost for Mr. de Blasio, the departing New York mayor, who has rarely enjoyed a positive approval rating throughout his eight-year term.After a high-stakes presidential election last year — which put the cap on four years of nonstop screaming headlines from Washington — and a year-plus of pandemic-related stresses, a lot of New Yorkers just aren’t that tuned into their citywide election. “A seemingly large portion of New Yorkers,” Michael wrote, “remain utterly disengaged.”New York Times PodcastsThe Ezra Klein Show: How Chuck Schumer plans to win over Trump votersOn Friday’s episode, Ezra spoke with Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, about how America has changed over the last 10 to 15 years, how Schumer views the extreme wings of the Republican Party, the need for big government now, and why he thinks Democrats can win over moderate Republicans.You can listen here, and read the transcript here.On Politics is also available as a newsletter. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox.Is there anything you think we’re missing? Anything you want to see more of? We’d love to hear from you. Email us at [email protected]. More

A True Story About Election FraudThe Serial Team��Reporting from Bladen County, N.C.Where Is the Evidence?The reporter Zoe Chace asked this question in episode two.0:20When we went to North Carolina to investigate, we were told there was a powerful group tampering with elections, bullying voters and stealing votes — the Bladen County Improvement Association PAC, a Black advocacy group.These allegations have never been substantiated. So why do they persist? More